Top 10 Favorite Bare Bellied Musical Acts of All-Time

The first monthly article I wrote was all about movies, easily my biggest passion and most beloved hobby. I figured for my second article, I would move onto another media format, music. Although, I don’t care for music as much as I do movies. While I’m subscribed to Netflix, Hulu, and some other video streaming services, so I can watch as many movies as I possibly can within my lifetime, I’m not subscribed to any music streaming services. Sure, I have an account with I Heart Radio, but it’s the free version, and honestly, I only listen to throwback channels like “I Heart 80s” and “I Heart 90s”. Yeah, I’m a retro kind of guy. Please don’t judge me, I’m much closer to age 40 than I am to age 20!

Much like with movies, I find music (or at least music videos) even sweeter when bare bellied women are involved. However, unlike my list of favorite movies featuring bare midriff attire, or navel centric scenes, I’m not going to make a list of my all-time favorite music videos featuring bare midriff or navel centric scenes, because that list would take forever to put together. Instead, I’ll do the simpler task of listing my favorite female music artists who are known for their bellybutton baring style choices!

There will be ground rules though. First, if the musical artist in question ever pierced her bellybutton at any point in her career, she is instantly disqualified. In other words, Britney Spears doesn’t make the list! Unfortunately, this also disqualifies girl groups like Girls Aloud and The Saturdays, who had numerous members with navel rings at one point or another. Second, I actually have to enjoy the music that the artist made. And I mean music that I honestly enjoy and I’m unashamed to listen to, or sing along to. So that again disqualifies Britney, and it also disqualifies The Spice Girls, who I only like in the “guilty pleasure” sort of way. I’ll only sing along to their songs if I’m alone and there’s no witnesses.

And while I’m piling onto Britney, I might as well get this off of my chest while I’m at it. I feel the navel fetishism community as a whole puts Britney on a pedestal WAY too often. Yes, I understand why you give her credit for cropped tops being all the rage of the fashion world back in the late 90s and early 2000s. However, no one woman should be solely credited for that fashion. There were several women who wore that same style at the same time, it was the media who decided to give Britney all the credit. Most of these other said women will appear on this list. I also understand that for young navel fetishists who were born around the height of Britney’s fame would view her as a goddess among mortal navel bearers, but I’m sorry, I think that’s giving her too much credit.

I have other reasons for not caring for Britney. Along with never caring at all for her music, as mentioned above. In fact, auto-tune is the second most important credit to all of her fame, after her naked midriff. And then there’s the navel ring, which is a high crime of fashion, as far as I’m concerned, with high-waisted bikini bottoms and pants being the second highest fashion crime. And lastly, the image of Britney during 2007, when she seemingly lost her mind, shaved her head bald, and attacked a car with an umbrella will forever be burned into my brain. It was way too haunting to forget. Her drunken performance at the MTV Music Awards from that same year didn’t help matters either. So yeah, it’s time for the navel fetishist community to move onto someone else as their bare navel idol, and worship her instead. There are plenty to choose from, Victoria Justice, Selena Gomez, Bella Thorne, and even Ariel Winter, just to name a few. Pick one of them instead. Britney is the distant past (and wasn’t that good to begin with), let’s leave her there, and look to the future.

Okay, with that little soapbox rant out of the way, onto the actual list. Keep in mind that there is no set order to this list, I’m just naming artists off as they come to my mind. And I’ll include my favorite songs of that artist, and the best navel gazing music videos that she was featured it.

The List:

Shania Twain

Long before the time of Taylor Swift (who seems to be the antichrist of belly baring), Shania Twain was the queen of crossover music genres. She was a mix of country and pop music during 1995, and she skyrocketed to fame as a result. Oh, and she also loved wearing cropped tops, much to all of our delight. In fact, the media made the whole bare navel style that she wore a huge deal, and a gimmick that Shaina made her own. As far as I’m concerned, Shania, not Britney, deserves more credit for the cropped top fashion boom. Two decades later, Shania is still gorgeous, even though she only comes back into the spotlight every now and then.

My Favorite Songs: “You’re Still The One”, “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, “From This Moment On”, “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”, “I’m Going to Getcha Good!”, “Forever and for Always”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Forever and for Always”, “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, “I’m Outta Here”, “Any Man of Mine”.

Shakira

How could she not be on this list? Bellydancing is part of her act, even if it means she has to lift her shirt up to do said bellydancing. Yeah, I’m a sucker for deliberate shirt lifting. She didn’t become popular in America and english speaking countries until 2001, but what a treasure she was, once we discovered her. She has since has become a mother of two, resulting in her deep innie becoming a ball outie. I’m looking forward to her doing bellydancing with her new outie; that newly formed ball of flesh popping out further with each bellyroll. Her stomach is so famous, she was a spokesmodel for an Activia ad!

My Favorite Songs: “Hips Don’t Lie”, “She Wolf”, “Loca”, “Whenever, Wherever”, “Can’t Remember to Forget You”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Hips Don’t Lie”, “She Wolf”, “Loca”, “Whenever, Wherever”, “Loca”, “Underneath Your Clothes”, “La Tortura”, “Gypsy”, “Chantaje” (the debut of her new outie).

Rihanna

What can I say, I’m a sucker for dazzling green eyes (Jennifer Connelly, anyone?). Although, I am more partial to Rihanna during her island girl days of her career than her current career. She was cute, she fit right in with the late 90s/early 2000s pop princesses, and most importantly, she was without tattoos. Yes, I have a seething hatred for all kinds of body art on women. Granted, I don’t hate tattoos around navels as much as I hate navel rings, because at least the tattoo doesn’t scar or block the bellybutton from view. But as much as I hate most of her body art, some of her fashion choices, and all of choices in boyfriends, Rihanna’s still beautiful, and her music is fun to listen to. At the time of this writing, she is the second most successful female musician in America, with 14 hit singles.

My Favorite Songs: “Umbrella”, “Don’t Stop The Music”, “Only Girl In The World”, “Man Down”, “We Found Love”, “Diamonds”, “Stay”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Pon de Replay”, “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want”, “Umbrella”, “Only Girl In The World”, “Stay” (including a bellybutton close-up).

Gwen Stefani

The former frontwoman for No Doubt. Nowadays, she’s best known as judge for the singing contest show, “The Voice”. Like Shania Twain, No Doubt’s fame came around 1995, and yes, Gwen lived in her cropped tops back then, too. So along with Shania, Gwen should be getting credit for starting the bare navel fashion trend. Both women were rocking out with their bellybuttons out, two or three years before Britney did! I need to stop bringing my hatred of Britney up. I must be honest, I prefer Gwen as a member of No Doubt than I do as a solo act.

My Favorite Songs: “Just A Girl”, “Spiderwebs”, “Don’t Speak”, “Hey Baby”, “It’s My Life”. Honorable Mention: Hollaback Girl (counts as a guilty pleasure).

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Excuse Me, Mr.”, “Spiderwebs”, “Just A Girl”, “Don’t Speak”, “Hey Baby”, “Hollaback Girl”, “Now That You Got It”.

Toni Braxton

Oh, here we go. The singer who left the biggest impact on me, in terms of navel fetishism. I mentioned Raquel Welch in my last article about being the first non-innie that I became aware of. Well, Toni was the first time I became aware of ball outies, my favorite type of bellybutton to look upon. The sheer size of Toni’s outie blew my mind, not to mention how willing she was to show it off! Much like with Julia Voth in the movie, B*tch Slap, Toni’s outie is like she took a pingpong ball, placed it on her stomach, and her skin absorbed it, making it part of her body. Even though Toni’s well into her 50s, and she’s past the prime of her career, she still bares her bellybutton from time to time. And I love her for it!

My Favorite Songs: “Another Sad Love Song”, “Breathe Again”, “Un-Break My Heart”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “I Don’t Want To”, “You Mean The World To Me”, “He Wasn’t Man Enough”, “Just Be A Man About It”, “Un-Break My Heart”, “Spanish Guitar”.

TLC

Here we go, a whole girl group. And yes, while they were a three-for-one deal, I was the most interested in the two members, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, due to them having outies. This band was like a spiritual successor to Toni Braxton, in terms of their navels and their sheer amount of navel exposure. Granted, Toni does have four sisters who formed a girl group of their own, but they never found the same fame that Toni reached (at least not without using a reality show). During the height of their fame, TLC became the best selling girl group of all time in America. Sadly, the only member of the group with an innie, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, died in a tragic accident two decades ago. The remaining members still make music, but the height of their fame is far behind them. Oh, and the made-for-TV movie, “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story” was a guilty pleasure of mine.

My Favorite Songs: “Creep”, “Waterfalls”, “No Scrubs”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Creep”, “Red Light Special”, “Waterfalls”, “No Scrubs”, “Unpretty”, “Damaged”, “Dear Lie”, “Diggin’ On You”, “Girl Talk”.

Mariah Carey

I feel I have to clarify this one. When I talk about Mariah Carey, I mean the Mariah Carey from the 90s. That is when I personally think she was at her best. I don’t know, but I think her watchable movie, “Glitter” left such a negative impression on me, I can’t in good faith say that I like her current music and songs. Her recent performance during New Year’s that went horribly wrong doesn’t help matter either. Granted, I found Mariah interesting because she seemed like too much a “good girl” to show any skin, which just made it all the better then she did end up baring her bellybutton. But I haven’t given her much thought after the turn of the century, even if she’s the most successful female singer in America, with 18 hit singles.

My Favorite Songs: “Someday”, “Emotions”, “Dreamlover”, “Hero”, “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, “Fantasy”, “Always Be My Baby”, “Honey”, “Butterfly”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Always Be My Baby”, “Honey”, “Fantasy”, “Dreamlover”.

Christina Aguilera

Yes, as far as I’m concerned, in the battle of Britney vs Christina, it’s no contest. Christina won. She can actually sing, she won a Grammy first, and while I didn’t care for her “Twisted Sister” phase that she had in the early 2000s, at least she never went crazy in public. And most importantly, she never pierced her bellybutton, and that gets you far in my opinion. Granted, after becoming a wife and mother, her body weight is all over the place, and these days, she’s best known as a judge for “The Voice”. But hey, I’ll give her credit for popularizing bare belly style over Britney anyday. Seriously, I need to stop throwing Britney under the bus, but it’s just so fun!

My Favorite Songs: “Genie In A Bottle”, “What A Girl Wants”, “I Turn To You”, “Come On Over”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Genie In A Bottle”, “What A Girl Wants”, “I Turn To You”, “Come On Over”, “Dirrty”, “Can’t Hold Us Down”, “Candyman”, “Lady Marmalade”, “Not Myself Tonight”.

Jennifer Lopez

I’m a little bias with this one. After all, the cover to her album, “J.Lo”, was a close-up of her bellybutton! I mean, if that’s not pandering, I don’t know what is! So yeah, she won me over there. But as for her songs, they are quite catchy. And as an actress, she’s given us plenty of movies with her in bare midriff attire, like “Selena” and “Anaconda”. Oh, and at over 40 years old, she’s still as hot as she was in her 20s!

My Favorite Songs: “If You Had My Love”, “Waiting For Tonight”, “Love Don’t Cost a Thing”, “Jenny From The Block”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “If You Had My Love”, “Play”, “Ain’t It Funny”, “Get Right”, “Jenny From The Block”, “Waiting For Tonight”, “Love Don’t Cost a Thing”, “I’m Glad”, “I’m Real”.

Aaliyah

I never said the musical artist in question had to be living. I mean, how would this list count as an “all-time” list, if I didn’t include artists who happened to be no longer with us? Yes, the untimely death of Aaliyah was wholly depressing, as we lost a truly beautiful and talented woman. And she was in the prime of her career at the time of her fatal plane crash. Not to mention she had a budding movie career in the works. It’s a textbook case of gone too soon. Oh, and call me crazy if you will, but I swear Aaliyah was probably a navel fetishist, as it seemed she was always deliberately drawing attention to her bellybutton. How could I not include someone who was one of us?

My Favorite Songs: “One In a Million”, “Are You That Somebody?”, “Try Again”, “Come Back In One Piece”, “Rock The Boat”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Try Again”, “We Need a Resolution”, “One In a Million”, “4 Page Letter”, “Are You That Somebody?”, “Rock The Boat”.

Honorable Mentions:

Kelly Rowland

Okay, this is a cheat. I don’t like any of Kelly’s solo songs. This is my way of name dropping her, without giving credit to Beyonce, who I can’t stand and who goes against my anti-navel ring stance. So I’m giving credit to Kelly, even though most of the songs I like by her were from when she was part of Destiny’s Child. That being said, I find Kelly vastly superior than Beyonce in terms of beauty. Yeah, it has everything to do with I being bias towards dark skinned girls and ball shaped outie bellybuttons. In that way, she’s another spiritual successor of Toni Braxton. And Kelly also did a workout video, so you can watch her do sit-up exercises, too!

My Favorite Songs: “Say My Name”, “Jumpin’, Jumpin’”, “Survivor”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Survivor”, “Say My Name”, “Bootylicious”, “No, No, No”, “Lose My Breath”, “Soldier”.

Janet Jackson

She would make the main list, if it weren’t for that damn navel ring! But also, like Mariah Carey, I’m focusing entirely on her work from the 90s, before she got that ring. And if she had an outie bellybutton that rivaled Toni Braxton, I would be willing to overlook any body art she might have. There was even a time she had quite impressive abs, but also that ring. However, a rule is a rule, and Miss Jackson broke the #1 rule.

My Favorite Songs: “Escapade”, “That’s the Way Love Goes”, “Runaway”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “That’s the Way Love Goes”, “Any Time, Any Place”, “Runway”, “Scream”.

Ciara

This is a case of me liking the artist, but not loving her music all that much. She’s a beautiful and talented girl. And I will not lie, she melts me every time she does the whole no hands backbend trick. The way she arches her back is just magical to watch. But yeah, other than her looks, I don’t care much for her music. But based on the pure amount of bare bellied music videos she has made (and the fact that she’s gorgeous), I have to include her.

My Favorite Songs: “Goodies”, “1, 2 Step”, “Oh”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “1, 2 Step”, “Never Ever”, “Get Up”, “And I”, “Goodies”, “Can’t Leave ‘Em Alone”, “Ride”, “Speechless”, “Gimmie Dat”, “Oh”.

Nicole Scherzinger

Much like Ciara, Nicole doesn’t make the main list, because as beautiful and sexy as she is, I don’t like her music all that much. And 90% of the Pussycat Dolls had their navels pierced, so that disqualifies most of them! And Eden’s Crush was a flash in the pan, so they don’t count either. When forced between a rock and hard place, I can’t put her on the list. However, given how proud she is to show off her slender and fit torso in the past two decades, I have to put her somewhere, so I’ll put it here.

My Favorite Song: “Whatever U Like”.

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Whatever U Like”, “Baby Love”, “Right There”, “Wet”, “Your Love”, “Bang”.

Girls’ Generation

How could I not include a K-pop or J-pop act somewhere? I mean, assemble a group of cute Korean or Japanese girls, have them all wear cropped tops, and then watch them sing and dance to fun and catchy songs. What’s not to like? Well, there is the problem that their songs will be in Korean or Japanese, so unless you’re fluent in those two languages, it’s kinda hard to understand what they are singing about, let alone be able to sing along with them! Based on that factor, I’ll give the honor of this spot to Girls’ Generation, who I only chose because they did a tour in America and released an english language album. That’s enough to qualify them for an honorable mention, and here they are.

My Favorite Song: “The Boys” (because it’s in english).

Best Navel Gazing Music Videos: “Oh!”, “I Got a Boy”, “Catch Me If You Can”, “You Think”, “Galaxy Supernova”, “Chocolate Love”.

Conclusion:

And there you have it. Once again, I gave you more than enough research to do. Almost all these videos I mentioned can be found on YouTube or Vevo. And for those of you who think I have horrible taste in music, hey, I never said this was a list about great music. Like the movie list that I made last time, this was about bare midriffs, not quality music. And if you want to know what I think is the sexiest music video ever made, it’s “Wicked Game”, by Chris Issak. I mean, Helena Christensen prancing around in her underwear, what’s not to love about that?! That’s all I have to say. Next time, I’ll make a television themed list. Or maybe I won’t. You’ll just have to wait and see.

Article thumbnail: Shakira – Loca Music Video.